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Many healthcare providers suffer from the dilemma of which is the best option for the patient to know about their health. In the United States the law inform that the patient have the right to know how sick they are, what to expect from it, and what are the consequences. It is the patient’s right to decide if they want treatment or not depending on the severity of the disease. But, many of the health care professional confront the dilemma of know how the news is going to affect the patients in the positive and negative way and what is the family members opinion about informing the patients. There are different point of view regarding in the influence of the news in the patient’s health. In many of our countries family members decided not to inform the patients about their illness because they consider that knowing the truth will depress the patient, that will decrease the immune system and will influence more to the acquire diseases that will affect the patient’s health. Many consider that it is better for the patient to die peacefully without know how sick they are. …show more content…
It is the patient’s decision to have a treatment or not depending of the severity of the treatment and how it will affect the patient. The nurse ethical dilemma is whether respect the family’s idea of not informing the patient or following the law regarding the patient’s right of knowing the truth. It is known by the nurse that their responsibility is to protect the safety of the patient and that is why making the decision of telling the truth to the patient knowing that it will affect him/her makes it so difficult. It is imperative for the nurses to know the right of the family members in the patient’s
One cannot fake being a nurse, one must be extremely genuine in order to perfect being a nurse; therefore, explaining why nurses enforce and value their code of ethics. The purpose of the code of ethics is to ensure patient safety and implement standard of care by following the nine provisions of ethics. The nine provisions explain the nurses’ responsibility while caring for a patient; for example, maintaining the rights and autonomy of a patient. Another point that the provisions highlight is being the patient advocate, nurses are in the front line of patient care and they must protect their patients. An important guideline that the nine provision emphasize is the need and requirement for nurses to continue with their education to promote beneficent and to avoid maleficent. The National Nursing Association (ANA) states that the nursing code of ethics “reiterates the fundamental and the commitment of the nurse” (Lachman, Swanson, & Windland-brown, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to highlight the obligations and duty of a nurse and why it is important when attempting to maintain standard of care.
Truth in medicine is a big discussion among many medical professionals about how doctors handle the truth. Truth to a patient can be presented in many ways and different doctors have different ways of handling it. Many often believe that patient’s being fully aware of their health; such as a bad diagnosis, could lead to depression compared to not knowing the diagnosis. In today’s society doctor’s are expected to deliver patient’s the whole truth in order for patients to actively make their own health decisions. Shelly K. Schwartz discusses the truth in her essay, Is It Ever Ok to Lie to Patients?. Schwartz argument is that patients should be told the truth about their health and presented and addressed in a way most comfortable to the patient.
All creatures on earth just want to live very long, and the human has more avid than any other creature on our planet. The patients having critical diseases want to prolong their lives, so they want to believe in doctors and modern medical system. I believe that they want to live because they still have a lot of things that they have to do, or they don’t want to make their family feel upset when they pass away. Moreover, their family have too many expectations of the medical treatments and the doctors, but the results are always negative. My close friend’s family is an example. When his grandmother’s diabetes was in the last period, she had to get some surgeries because her feet were gangrenous. After that surgeries, she told she feels very painful and just wants to die, but she does not want to make her family feel bad. Therefore, she had suffered her painful with an expectation prolonging her life on a hospital bed. Many people nearing the end of their lives have to suffer many medical treatments looking like a mortification. “Many people think of CPR as a reliable life save when, in face, the results are usually poor,” written by the author, has demonstrated for that examples. In addition, the doctors are the second factor that affects to the decision using medical treatments. All of the doctors just want to try their best to cure the patients, and they want to help the
Should doctors tell the truth to their patients? How much information should the patient know about a certain ill or operation? These controversial questions are asked more frequently in our society. Patients nowadays,. are very sensitive to certain diseases more than before. This paper argues against telling the truth in doctor-patient relationship. Not by defending the idea directly but, by presenting first how truth can be harmful to the patient and by giving Higgs’ objection to it, then by giving my own objection to Higgs’ argument.
This essay explores the ethical issues that arise on the delivery of healthcare delivered to a client. One of the expert abilities for nursing states that medical attendants ought to "integrate knowledge of ethical and legal aspects of healthcare and professional values into nursing practice". Medical attendants have an ethical and professional responsibility to assess and continually evaluate restraining a client as "doing good or harm" to minimize restraints for clients in their care. This essay will firstly discuss of ethical issues that have been lied behind the scenario, secondly ethical perspective and an alternative perspective of the issue, thirdly it will discuss of human dignity and right, professional code and conduct,
In conclusion, doctors have a moral obligation to tell patients the truth about their illnesses, unless the patient clearly states that he or she does not want to know. Medicine is a field that works to treat the patient. This means that physicians are there for guidance, using expertise and years of education to guide them to a cure. This does not mean that a physician should make decisions about the patients without proper consent. Believing that patients will misunderstand the diagnosis, or assuming that they won’t want to know are not valid reasons for keeping information from the person. Communication is important in a medical setting, and is especially important when talking about the health of an individual. With relevant, appropriate and humanistic communication, telling a patient their diagnosis can and should be done in a caring way.
This week readings bring us overview of the issues we face in today’s healthcare such as “safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable” care (IOM, 2001, p 3). Safety and quality of care are the major factors which I think must be address to assure the best possible patients’ outcomes and to build culture of safety.
Truth-telling in nursing and the medical profession in general is an extensive area encompassing many ethical issues, not limited to and including the rights of patients or their families to receive information about their diagnosis and illness. The practitioner, on the other hand, must balance their obligation to tell the truth against the importance of Non-maleficence ,“do no harm”.
It can also accompany with the necessary work of determining, if the patient is showing any variation of illness denial. (Lumbinsky MS). Most of the people they express their desire about their disease diagnosis, prognosis and condition of their illness. Shunning information is one of the valid psychological coping mechanism. Discussing the information and requesting for another diagnostic test is the key for scheduling next counselling with the patient. In the fourth step, the nurse should warn the patient, the bad news is coming soon. So the patient cannot embarrassed too much. Example;” I have one bad news for you” I am sorry to tell you that”. The nurse conveys this bad news in simple language for patient understanding. The care provider should use’sample of tissue” instead of” biopsy.” Nurse can share only small chunk of information with the patient and simultaneously assess the patient understanding level. If the patient’s prognosis is poor, tell about the pain control and symptom management. In the fifth step, nurses having greatest challenge, in managing the patient’s emotion after they heard about their bad news. The patient may show their feelings like, anger, denial ,unbelievness, and
There has been much debate in our society over whether physicians should disclose the prognosis terminally ill patients. Often physicians intentionally overestimate survival times when communicating with patients in order to give the...
Ethical dilemma is facing a problem without any acceptable solutions. Another word for ethical dilemma is legal dilemma. As such most of the nurses face ethical dilemma on a daily basis irrespective of their place of practice. It doesn't matter where nurses function in their varied roles, they encounter ethical decisions that can impact them and their patients. I strongly believe there is no right solution to an ethical dilemma. Moreover, nurses should amalgamate their understanding of ethical and legal aspects of health care and professional values into nursing practice. Therefore, it is vital to be aware of the kinds of dilemmas nurses may come across during their profession and how they have been dealt with in the past. Initially, it is very important for the nurses to know the difference between law and ethics. Ethics distinguishes the values and action of the people.
I have explained three of the seven principles that I use while interacting with my patients daily. The three methods of communication were defined and explained how each is used in the healthcare setting. The communication method that works best on my unit was explained per my unit’s preference. The four-ethical principle regarding communication were explained along with how these principles and team communication affect patient safety. Overall, this paper has demonstrated why communication is important in the health care
In today’s society, individuals face various ethical dilemmas every day, whether it is deciding to lend a hand to a stranger who has fallen or getting involved in a bullying scenario. We consistently make decisions that correspondence with our morals and values. Ethical dilemmas follow the nursing profession where nurses have to decide what options will benefit and provide their patient’s the absolute best care. The question of honesty comes into play when the nurse has to convey unsettling news of cancer to his/her patients. Is honesty the best policy, should a patient know everything about his/her conditions in spite of how severe it may be? There are many factors to consider when making an astute decision. The patient, family members, physician and nurse viewpoints are to consider for the most appropriate solution.
One strong argument here is during the times of terminal illness. It is natural for the healthcare team to discuss information with the family in terms of how the patient is doing. In such time like responding to an inquiring spouse, the requirements of confidentiality are difficult to achieve. Generally, it is unethically and unjustifiable to discuss any information without the permission of the patient. Nevertheless, it is still the obligation of the patient to inform the spouse about the status of health and any information related to the diagnosis.
We as health care professionals need to work side by side with the families to provide the best care and decisions that are right by our patients. We have to be mindful of the cause and effect our course of treatment depicts for our patients. No individual wants to live in pain or misery, we all want to be healthy and happy and are willing to go great lengths to achieve this goal. Death is the final stage of life, but as we live and get older we start to prepare for death as to not fear death but accept it. Health care professionals may benefit from the opportunity to acknowledge, normalize and integrate death and dying into the continuum of life, both for themselves as well as their patients. (Sinclair, 2011) With advancements in technology and medicine we are living longer and fuller lives, and given time quality of life will only continue to improve.